Downtown San Jose tower with unique features advances
SAN JOSH >> A downtown San Jose tower is slated to break ground this summer or fall and bring the city’s urban core a unique combination of components within a single highrise.
The highrise, designed to contain homes, offices, and restaurant space, would sprout a short distance from a transit-oriented village in downtown San Jose that Google has proposed.
The Carlysle is being built at 51 Notre Dame Ave. next to Carlysle Street. The tower is located in an opportunity zone where property investments can be made with significant tax advantages.
San Jose-based Acquity Realty, a local developer, intends to build a 21-story mixed-use tower with several floors of offices and several floors of residences.
“Our goal is to break ground this summer,” said John Pringle, chief executive officer with Acquity Realty.
The tower would consist of 290 apartments and 158,000 square feet of office space.
The developers have applied to city officials to obtain grading and drainage permits, which are needed to bulldoze the property ahead of the tower’s construction.
Acquity has landed some investors in the project and is seeking additional investments.
“The fund-raising is going very well,” Pringle said. “We are headed towards completion of our financing.”
The highrise also could benefit from its proximity to the Google village just down the street.
Google has proposed a transit-oriented neighborhood near the Diridon train station and SAP Center that would consist of offices, homes, restaurants, shops, hotel facilities, cultural centers, entertainment hubs, and open spaces.
The Carlysle is a tower that’s different from other highrises in downtown San Jose, Erik Schoennauer, a land-use and property consultant who is helping steer the development proposal through the city planning process, said in a prior interview with this news organization.
A tower with several levels of homes, multiple levels of offices, and ground-floor retail is deemed to be a rarity in San Jose.
“It’s common in other cities like New York or Chicago with taller towers,” Schoennauer said. “In San Jose, this has not been the trend to date.”
The Carlysle would include 12 floors of residential, five floors of offices, and four floors of parking as well as the ground-floor office and retail.
Using a mix of all three development types also improves the project’s chances of success, Schoennauer said.
“By having office, housing, and retail in one highrise, the benefits are that you gain the relative strengths of each different use, and you mask the weaknesses of each use,” Schoennauer said. “That makes the tower in its totality feasible.”